The practice of setting marginal prices below marginal costs is so common in telecommunications offerings that it can justifiably be labeled a stylized fact. In this paper, we present a stylized model that establishes conditions under which this practice is economically efficient and...

The authors study optimal nonuniform pricing in a setting where a customer's demand at the start of a billing period contains a random variable whose realization becomes known by the end of the billing period. In this context, an optional calling plan is a tariff which the consumer must select...

We analyze optimal multiproduct nonlinear prices in the case where consumer tastes are characterized by more than one taste parameter. We present conditions under which the optimal nonlinear price schedule can be computed by finding optimal price schedules separately for each market. If so, they...

Traditional economic analyses of the peak-load problem typically assume an unrealistic degree of regularity in demand during well-defined peak and off-peak periods. This issue is addressed through a comprehensive statistical model that separates demand into its systematic and stochastic...

In a recent issue of this journal, L.L. Johnson and D.P. Reed (J and R) address an important regulatory issue concerning the 'economy of scope' of integrated broadband networks versus separate voice and cable TV networks. However, we do not believe that the technical question of economy of scope...

The prevailing trend in the US telecommunications industry is toward industry convergence and market competition. This paper examines possible scenarios for developments in the telecommunications market as a result of further industry convergence and changes in the political and regulatory...

This paper considers assumptions on consumer heterogeneity that can generate bidirectional distortion in a model of quality discrimination. It is shown that the profit-maximizing strategy can involve the simultaneous degradation of quality at the low end of the spectrum, while quality...

The standard model of monopolistic imperfect quality discrimination involving consumer self-selection has shown that no distortion occurs at the highest quality level, while all lower quality levels are degraded in order to maintain profitable market segmentation. This result flows from the...